Warning! This blog is unsuitable for those who are unwilling to change. Don’t tell me I never told you so if you keep reading…
How many of you take advantage of your bodies every single day? Whether that be not eating right, not exercising, not giving yourself enough credit for what you accomplish in a day, not thankful enough for the way you look, or aren’t thankful enough for how healthy you actually are and how fortunate you are. Well God has been revealing to me since being on the race that I need to look after myself better but also look more like Him. Since being on the race I have found myself not exercising as much as I did back home not eating as healthy because of the limitations that we have in each country to me these sounded like legitimate reasons… but then God started convicting me that these are excuses. Back home I wanted to feel healthy and since our bodies are a Holy Temple we need to treat them as such (1 Corinthians6: 19-20), so I exercised and ate healthy. God has revealed to me that looking beautiful can look different then just exercising and eating right (although these things are also important because God does want us to take care of our bodies!). But also become more like Him by the way you act and think. In Genesis 1:27 it says “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them”. By saying you are not satisfied with your body or self- image is saying you’re not satisfied with His creation.
This year is going to be so challenging and I never really thought about that until this month because I have put myself in isolation of family and friends for a year to be completely dependent on God in every decision I make! I mean what kind of crazy person leaves everything they know and go half way around the world to experience God in a new way (crazy, right?!). Well here I am… as vulnerable as ever listening, learning and speaking Gods word to those who don’t know him.
In Nepal I went to a worship session that was held by an organization called Iris, which is founded by Heidi Baker. When I went I got prayed over that night saying that I am a worshiper and she saw music notes all around me… haha. Well for those of you who know me I don’t play an instrument and can’t carry a tune. Actually when I heard this word part of me wanted to cling to it while the other part wanted to just say, “Listen, I think you have the wrong person”. But she continued and said that some day I will be a worship leader and will learn an instrument. So I went back to the house and chewed on that for a while and prayed into it. The more I prayed about it the more I wanted to learn! So here I am in Thailand willing to learn what God spoke over me. (Good thing I have two people on my team who are willing to teach me how to play guitar!)
Going back to Chiang Mai, Thailand… Currently, my team is working with an organization that is taking in children boys and girls who are at high risk for being sex trafficked. So we are helping them build a boy home but as we were there this one lady caught my eye. She had a couple fingers (maybe 4 total on two hands) the rest were stubs. Her right foot was completely turned at a 90 degree angle to the left. You would think she would be incapable to be doing the work that we do in 35 degree Celsius weather. But she proved me wrong! She is one of the hardest workers there and gets the most done at the fastest pace. She is filled with Jesus as that’s what you see when you look at her. The first day we met she would make fun of me in a teasing way and would just laugh at me at whatever I do. All I could do was laugh cause we couldn’t understand each other. All we did for 5 hours was pile stones into a bucket and assembly line buckets up to a 2-storey building. Well you can just imagine how that day went with all the giggles and laughs lol. The following week I saw her again but I came down with a cold, got bite by an ant on the bottom of my foot that made it hard to walk for a bit along with the skin on my scalp, neck, back and ears were so dry that every 15 minutes I was itching like crazy! I was just having a miserable day in my eyes. But this lady lite up when she saw me and she gave me a huge hug and the words that came out of her mouth were “I missed you!” She lets me go and hugs me a second time! I was so touched and just wanted to cry with joy. I met her once how could I have touched this lady so much?! She was showing me love with her actions like it says in 1 John 3:18, “ Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth”.
She made my thinking change that day. I want to be like her. Live a life filled with joy and laugh. Be in a relationship so close to God that beauty just flows out of me and others are visibly able to see something different about me. “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father, which is in heaven”. – Matthew 5:16
I want to encourage you to put yourself in a spot where you have no choice but to be 100% dependent on God. Allow God to show you things you need to change in yourself and personality to be able to grow in a new and beautiful/ or handsome way! Change the way you act and think and try to be more like Christ. You will develop this glow (like the lady I met) that will be resistible to others!“For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.” – 2 Corinthians 4:6
Love you my dear supporters!
Heidi 🙂
